Apparatus for producing channel black



fl 1963 F. ADAMS ETAL 3,

AYPARATUS FOR PRODUCING CHANNEL BLOCK Filed May 2, 1967 FIGURE 2INVENTOR.

-F. C. ADAMS, R. N. JONES BY United States Patent 0 3,418,085 APPARATUSFOR PRODUCING CHANNEL BLACK Floyd C. Adams, Pampa, and Roy N. Jones,Skellytown, Tex., assignors to Cabot Corporation, Boston, Mass, acorporation of Delaware Continuation-impart of application Ser. No.377,844, June 25, 1964. This application May 2, 1967, Ser. No. 650,558

3 Claims. (Cl. 23259.6)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to animprovement in channel house equipment designed for the production ofchannel blacks. This improvement comprising suspending a plurality offree swinging chains from a series of points above the channels so thatsaid chains extend down through the space between adjacent channelsbefore terminating with their free ends below the channels. Said chainsthus not only prevent build-up and bridging of carbon black upon andbetween the channels and other structural members of the channel table,but also remain clean and free of black deposits themselves due to thefreedom of movement between the individual link members thereof.

The present application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S.application Ser. No. 377,844, filed June 25, 1964, and now abandoned.

One of the problems inherent in channel black production processesinvolves a phenomenon known to those skilled in the art as bridging.Briefly, bridging occurs when there is an accumulation of black in thespace between adjacent channels which are located above the 3 flames.When the bridging becomes excessive, the air circulation pattern of thehot house is adversely affected which in turn impairs the overallefliciency of the process and often deleteriously affects the quality ofthe product. Accordingly, down time is required to remove theaccumulation of black between channels and in most cases, this removalis done manually. The problem of bridging is especially apparent in theoil enrichment channel black process such as is described in detail inUS. Patent No. 2,719,078 to Billings et al., where the increased yieldsobtained accelerate the accumulation of black and require the removalthereof more frequently. For example, in a typical oil enrichmentprocess, more often than not, high yields continue for only several daysafter removal of the accumulated black. Thereafter, the yield drops ofl?quite appreciably and the removal operation must be repeated.

Another disadvantage of bridging is the effect the phenomenon has on theuniformity of the quality of black produced. Thus, when large amounts ofblack are retained for any length of time between adjacentchannels-Where the temperature is quite highthe black will becomeaftertreated and therefore the quality of that black, e.g. the surfacecharacteristics, etc., differs from that of the black as it is normallyproduced. Accordingly, it will be apparent that any process or apparatuswhich will virtully eliminate bridging and the effects thereof inchannel black processes-and especially in oil enriched channel blackprocesseswould be indeed, a notable contribution to the art.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvedprocess and apparatus for producing channel type carbon blacks.

Another object of the present invention is to provide both process andapparatus for producing channel type blacks of improved uniformity.

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Still another object of the present invention is to provide apparatusespecially efiicient for producing channel blacks by way of oilenrichment processes or like processes especially those characterized byhigh yields.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will in part beobvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The above objects and advantages which flow from the practice of ourinvention and the manner in which same are realized will be betterunderstood and appreciated by reference to the attached drawing in whichFIG- URE 1 illustrates typical interior channel house equipment inperspective together with a preferred embodiment of our improvement withportions of the equipment being cut away while FIGURE 2 is a view acrossline 22 of FIGURE 1.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, typical channel house equipment includes aplurality of burner pipes 20 which extend horizontally almost the entirelength of the channel house. The burner pipes 20 are generally arrangedadjacent each other and are equipped with a multiplicity of burner tips22. The number of burner tips will Vary but representative numbers fortypical houses run between about 2500 and about 3500 tips per building.Suspended directly above each burner pipe 20 is a channel 24. In presentchannel processes, the plurality of adjacent channels are usuallysupported by cross members 26 in the manner illustrated and such membersare spaced at convenient intervals. The integral unit of adjacentchannels 24 and cross members 26 is usually referred to in the art as achannel table or simply as a table and such tables are connected toreciprocating means (not shown) so that the table as a whole is able toreciprocate a certain distance horizontally along the length of thebuilding. During operation of the process, the flame from burner tips 22impinges on the under surface of channels 24 and the black is depositedupon said surface. The deposited black is continually removed fromchannels 24 by slowly reciprocating the channels or channel table overscrapers 30 (see FIGURE 2). The black after being scraped otf falls intoa series of hoppers (not shown) disposed beneath the pipes and channelsand thence into some sort of conveyor means for ultimate recovery. Eachhopper and the plurality of burner tips arranged directly thereabove arealso generally considered as an integral unit and such a unit is knownto those skilled in the art as a bay.

During operation, the phenomenon of bridging occurs between adjacentchannels such as at area 40 of FIGURE 2. The rate at which bridging willoccur in any given process will depend primarily on the overall yield ofthe process but also to some extent on the nature of the black produced.Thus, bridging is an especially complicating factor in such processes asthe aforesaid oil enrichment processes because of the higher than normalyields obtained. However, in accordance with our invention, the problemof bridging in any channel process is virtually eliminated. This isaccomplished by placing between adjacent channels, a plurality of chainswhich continually sweep or otherwise remove from said channels blackwhich accumulates thereon. The means illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2comprises a plurality of free swinging chains 28 suspended above andbetween channels 24. Chains 28 are of sufiicient length to extendthrough the space between adjacent channels and terminate beneath thechannels. For the purposes of the present specification and the claimsappended hereto the term chain refers to any structure comprising aplurality of link members attached one to the other in serial andflexible relationship. We have found chains to be especially efficientand surprisingly advantageous in the practice of our invention. Forexample, chains offer little if any resistance to the reciprocatingmotion of the channels even when a cross member 26 is utilized as is thecase in the greater portion of existing channel equipment. Of evengreater importance, however, chains have been found to be substantiallyself-cleaning during operations and thus are not themselves subject tothe problem of deposition of black product thereon. The reason for thisvery meaningful advantage is not fully understood; however, it isbelieved that said advantage is directly attributable to the peculiarworking relationships of the chain links, i.e. their freedom to movesubstantially independently of one another. The number of chains placedbetween the same adjacent channels and the distance between the chainswill vary but will depend largely upon the length of reciprocation ofthe channel or channel table. Normally, the distance between the chainswhich occupy the space between the same adjacent channels will generallynot be greater than the distance said channels travel in one directionalong the length of the channel house.

The following examples are offered to illustrate the advantages to beobtained in accordance with the practice of our invention and also tofurther illustrate representative operational details of the process andequip ment involved. It is to be understood then that these examples areillustrative in nature and in no sense should they be construed so as tolimit our invention beyond those limitations expressly set forth in theappended claims.

EXAMPLE 1 gallon of fuel.

EXAMPLE 2 Between each pair of adjacent channels in the abovedescribedhot house, chains were installed at intervals of about 8 feet with eachchain being positioned to hang between the respective adjacent channelsand to extend through the space therebetween. Without any other change,that is, without changes in fuel or the rate at which same isintroduced, etc., the yield based on gallons of gil utilized increasedto 1.7 lbs. of black per gallon of nel.

It will be obvious from the above that the practice of our inventionleads not only to substantially increased yields but also whenconsidered in light of the elimination of down time and the uniformquality of black obtained, the practice thereof greatly improves theoverall efiiciency of the channel black process.

Many modifications in the incidental features utilized to illustrate ourinvention may be accomplished without departing from the spirit andscope thereof. Therefore, the above-described disclosure, examples andthe accompanying drawing should be regarded as illustrative and as notlimiting the scope of the present invention.

Having described our invention together with preferred embodimentsthereof, what we declare as new and desire to secure by U.S. LettersPatent is as follows:

1. In channel house apparatus of the type wherein a multiplicity ofsmall burner tips are arranged so as to impinge smoky flames upon theundersides of a series of parallel channels supported by cross membersto form a channel table which is regularly reciprocated horizontallywhile black is scraped off of said channels, the improvement whichcomprises a plurality of free swinging chains suspended from mountingsabove said channel table positioned so that each chain extendsvertically downward through the open space between adjacent channels toa point below said channels.

2. The improved apparatus of claim 1 in which said apparatus includesmeans to feed a mixture of a normally liquid hydrocarbon and a normallygaseous hydrocarbon to said burner tip.

3. The improved apparatus of claim 1 wherein the distance betweenadjacent chains extending through the open space between any twoadjacent channels is no more than the distance said channel tabletravels horizontally in one direction during reciprocation thereof.

Neal et al.: Carbon BlackIts Manufacture, Properties, and Uses, Bureauof Mines Bulletin 192, 1922, pages 15-21.

EDWARD J. MEROS, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R.

